Austria:
Whoops! Nico probably thought, well Hamilton hung me out to dry so many times that this time it is my corner and I'll run him out of road. Hamilton was optimistic trying to overtake around the outside of a 90 degree right hander.
I love how nine out of ten British media reports said Nico bottled it. He didn't. He was experiencing a few brake problems, which resulted in him coming out of the first corner slowly.
Britain:
Fair play to Lewis. A dominant win. Nico again struggled in the wet.
Standout drive had to be Max 33!!
Hungary:
This is a must win for Nico, to turn the tide of momentum. It will ebb and flow through the year. He won the first four races. Lewis has won four of the last five.
Ah Hungary...memories....
Showing posts with label hungary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hungary. Show all posts
Sunday, 17 July 2016
Sunday, 16 August 2015
Hungary - A 30th Birthday to remember
Justin:
Well, instead of asking what Hungary offered up as a race, it would be much simpler to ask what did it not offer?
Not much, is the answer. It had everything. Overtakes, rocket launches at the start, prangs, offs, people surging through the field, safety cars...overtakes, prangs...best race of the year!
I was there to witness it all first hand. What a race to pick to go and see live!
It was bloody hot, with the Friday and Saturday reaching 38/39 degrees centigrade - with a track temperature of 59 degrees centigrade. That is insane.
We were sat in a stand (never figured that one out) at the first chicane - turn 5 or 6 I think? I couldn't believe the roar when the cars came round on lap one with the Ferrari pair leading the way.
The roar was even louder when Lewis binned it into the kitty litter. Video here:
You can hear me shouting "Was that Hamilton??!!". The video screen was a way down the road and whilst you can identify people via their helmets (though my co-blogger seemed befuddled by the clear distinction between Nico's black helmet and the white one of Lewis), in the first lap melee I lost track in the crowd eruption.
Finns and Ferrari
I'd say 90% of fans were Ferrari fans of some description and there were a mighty load of Finnish people supporting Kimi. They don't appear to notice that Bottas is of the same country.
Nico
A huge lost opportunity here for Nico. Ok he couldn't keep up with the Red team and was nowhere near as quick as Lewis all weekend. After Hamilton went off, there was bags of time between the two drivers, but for some reason Nico just couldn't catch the guys ahead and seemed to fixate on what Lewis was up to behind. As it happened, drama unfolded late on for both as Hamilton received a drive through in his most error-strewn race since 2011 and Rosberg...oh Nico.
It was difficult keeping track of who was where sometimes so the first we saw was a Mercedes tootling around with a puncture...or was he just going really slow when he came by us?
I'm happy
Alonso - legend. Pushing his car back to the pits after it conked out in qualy then hauling it to a superb 5th place on Sunday. You could see in qualy and indeed in the race that he was pushing to the limit, the McLaren dancing..skating...off the kerb coming out of the chicane as it accelerated away. Beautiful watching F1 at this part of the track. Oh, and on the Thursday evening pitwalk (we got there despite a walk of death across hills and fields for 40 minutes through an electrical storm) I saw Alonso sat in his car. Awesome.
Jules - #17
The minute of silence in his memory was observed beautifully by all of the 80/90,000 fans at the circuit. I couldn't believe how silent it was and how emotional it all was. That's what I love about F1. We all follow different drivers and teams, but we all love F1. Jules was a part of what we love.
Next stop = Belgium.
Well, instead of asking what Hungary offered up as a race, it would be much simpler to ask what did it not offer?
Not much, is the answer. It had everything. Overtakes, rocket launches at the start, prangs, offs, people surging through the field, safety cars...overtakes, prangs...best race of the year!
I was there to witness it all first hand. What a race to pick to go and see live!
It was bloody hot, with the Friday and Saturday reaching 38/39 degrees centigrade - with a track temperature of 59 degrees centigrade. That is insane.
We were sat in a stand (never figured that one out) at the first chicane - turn 5 or 6 I think? I couldn't believe the roar when the cars came round on lap one with the Ferrari pair leading the way.
The roar was even louder when Lewis binned it into the kitty litter. Video here:
Finns and Ferrari
I'd say 90% of fans were Ferrari fans of some description and there were a mighty load of Finnish people supporting Kimi. They don't appear to notice that Bottas is of the same country.
Nico
A huge lost opportunity here for Nico. Ok he couldn't keep up with the Red team and was nowhere near as quick as Lewis all weekend. After Hamilton went off, there was bags of time between the two drivers, but for some reason Nico just couldn't catch the guys ahead and seemed to fixate on what Lewis was up to behind. As it happened, drama unfolded late on for both as Hamilton received a drive through in his most error-strewn race since 2011 and Rosberg...oh Nico.
It was difficult keeping track of who was where sometimes so the first we saw was a Mercedes tootling around with a puncture...or was he just going really slow when he came by us?
I'm happy
Alonso - legend. Pushing his car back to the pits after it conked out in qualy then hauling it to a superb 5th place on Sunday. You could see in qualy and indeed in the race that he was pushing to the limit, the McLaren dancing..skating...off the kerb coming out of the chicane as it accelerated away. Beautiful watching F1 at this part of the track. Oh, and on the Thursday evening pitwalk (we got there despite a walk of death across hills and fields for 40 minutes through an electrical storm) I saw Alonso sat in his car. Awesome.
Jules - #17
The minute of silence in his memory was observed beautifully by all of the 80/90,000 fans at the circuit. I couldn't believe how silent it was and how emotional it all was. That's what I love about F1. We all follow different drivers and teams, but we all love F1. Jules was a part of what we love.
Next stop = Belgium.
Monday, 1 August 2011
On the Button
Phil: Vettel might have qualified on pole, but almost from the off it was clear one of the McLarens would win the race. But for most of the race, it looked like it was going to be the other one.
In changeable conditions, Lewis Hamilton pounced on Vettel when he slid off the track in the early laps, and by the end of the first round of pitstops, when almost the whole field came in to change from inters to slicks, Jenson Button had also passed Vettel.
A few laps later, Nick Heidfeld added to his collection of spectacular exits from races (running over his own front wing in Canada, being shunted into a polystyrene advert by Buemi in Germany) when he had to leap from his burning Renault, which had caught fire by being held up in the pits with no air flow to cool it. There was then a small explosion from the sidepod (the Renault's exhaust comes out in front of the sidepod and is then channelled over and under it for aerodynamic reasons) and the remains of Heidfeld's car finally nearly collected the world champion, Vettel, as it was towed the wrong way up the pit lane.
Paradoxically, this triggered a rush for the pits as the teams feared the safety car would be called out, meaning that almost the entire field had to avoid Heidfeld's car in the pit lane exit. After this second round of pitstops, Hamilton was leading and on the option tyre, which meant he'd have to pit again, and Button was second and on the prime, which meant he probably wouldn't have to pit again.
It looked like a classic case of McLaren hedging their bets, ensuring they'd get a one-two whatever tyre strategy turned out to be right. Then it began to rain again. Hamilton, normally the class of the field in the rain, spun, then forced Paul di Resta on to the grass when rejoining the race. Button took the lead, then lost it to Hamilton on the same lap when he had an incident of his own. Hamilton, the first McLaren to pass the pit lane exit, came in for inters.
Then it stopped raining. Hamilton was now on the wrong tyres, and had to pit again. To really ruin his race, he got a drive through penalty for impeding di Resta after his spin. Button took the win, followed by Vettel who was the only other man on the right strategy. Button and Vettel pitted three times each, but Hamilton had to pit six times, if you include the penalty. He finished fourth, 48s behind Button, having done well to pass Webber and Massa in the dying laps.
It was Jenson's 200th race and came five years after his maiden win at the same track. But because of his two DNFs at Silverstone and the Nurburgring, he's still only 5th in the title chase. Importantly, despite having won only one of the last five races, Vettel finished ahead of his three closest title challengers and is now 85 points clear of his nearest rival, his teammate Webber, with 8 races to go. By my calculations, he need only finish third in each race for the rest of the season to be world champion again.
It might be more Jonathan Legard than Murray Walker, but there's my race summary done.
In changeable conditions, Lewis Hamilton pounced on Vettel when he slid off the track in the early laps, and by the end of the first round of pitstops, when almost the whole field came in to change from inters to slicks, Jenson Button had also passed Vettel.
A few laps later, Nick Heidfeld added to his collection of spectacular exits from races (running over his own front wing in Canada, being shunted into a polystyrene advert by Buemi in Germany) when he had to leap from his burning Renault, which had caught fire by being held up in the pits with no air flow to cool it. There was then a small explosion from the sidepod (the Renault's exhaust comes out in front of the sidepod and is then channelled over and under it for aerodynamic reasons) and the remains of Heidfeld's car finally nearly collected the world champion, Vettel, as it was towed the wrong way up the pit lane.
Paradoxically, this triggered a rush for the pits as the teams feared the safety car would be called out, meaning that almost the entire field had to avoid Heidfeld's car in the pit lane exit. After this second round of pitstops, Hamilton was leading and on the option tyre, which meant he'd have to pit again, and Button was second and on the prime, which meant he probably wouldn't have to pit again.
It looked like a classic case of McLaren hedging their bets, ensuring they'd get a one-two whatever tyre strategy turned out to be right. Then it began to rain again. Hamilton, normally the class of the field in the rain, spun, then forced Paul di Resta on to the grass when rejoining the race. Button took the lead, then lost it to Hamilton on the same lap when he had an incident of his own. Hamilton, the first McLaren to pass the pit lane exit, came in for inters.
Then it stopped raining. Hamilton was now on the wrong tyres, and had to pit again. To really ruin his race, he got a drive through penalty for impeding di Resta after his spin. Button took the win, followed by Vettel who was the only other man on the right strategy. Button and Vettel pitted three times each, but Hamilton had to pit six times, if you include the penalty. He finished fourth, 48s behind Button, having done well to pass Webber and Massa in the dying laps.
It was Jenson's 200th race and came five years after his maiden win at the same track. But because of his two DNFs at Silverstone and the Nurburgring, he's still only 5th in the title chase. Importantly, despite having won only one of the last five races, Vettel finished ahead of his three closest title challengers and is now 85 points clear of his nearest rival, his teammate Webber, with 8 races to go. By my calculations, he need only finish third in each race for the rest of the season to be world champion again.
It might be more Jonathan Legard than Murray Walker, but there's my race summary done.
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Splash and dash
Phil: Blogging in my lunch break at work as I've moved yet again, and have no Internet at home, so it's going to have to be a short splash and dash.
First things first, greetings to our follower! First actual readers, and now an actual follower. This blog goes from strength to strength. If we carry on at this rate we may be starting our own religion by the end of the season.
Anyway, the race. I would have to agree with some (but not all) of my co-blogger's detailed analysis. The news since he blogged is that Schumacher has apologised to Barrichello for almost shunting him into the pitwall, and been penalised 10 grid places at the next race, at Spa. Given his current qualifying form this may well put him last on the grid.
I'm going to give a pat on the back to Vitaly Petrov, consistently outraced by his Renault teammate Robert Kubica all season to the extent that Renault have openly considered who to replace him with (Sutil? Heidfeld? Raikkonen?), who scored a 'best of the rest' fifth place at the Hungaroring.
Congratulations also to Mark Webber - make no mistake, this was the drive of a champion. Admittedly, the opportunity only arose because of his teammate's misfortune (one of the Red Bulls was inevitably going to win this race, as they were head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the field at the weekend, and I'm going to pretend I didn't see Vettel behaving like a spoilt child as took his penalty and on the podium) but the important thing is that Mark took the opportunity and turned it into a dominant win. And with the top five drivers separated by only 20 points (the equivalent of only 8 points under the old system) with one third of the season left, this is going to be the closest season finale in a long time. I can't wait.
First things first, greetings to our follower! First actual readers, and now an actual follower. This blog goes from strength to strength. If we carry on at this rate we may be starting our own religion by the end of the season.
Anyway, the race. I would have to agree with some (but not all) of my co-blogger's detailed analysis. The news since he blogged is that Schumacher has apologised to Barrichello for almost shunting him into the pitwall, and been penalised 10 grid places at the next race, at Spa. Given his current qualifying form this may well put him last on the grid.
I'm going to give a pat on the back to Vitaly Petrov, consistently outraced by his Renault teammate Robert Kubica all season to the extent that Renault have openly considered who to replace him with (Sutil? Heidfeld? Raikkonen?), who scored a 'best of the rest' fifth place at the Hungaroring.
Congratulations also to Mark Webber - make no mistake, this was the drive of a champion. Admittedly, the opportunity only arose because of his teammate's misfortune (one of the Red Bulls was inevitably going to win this race, as they were head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the field at the weekend, and I'm going to pretend I didn't see Vettel behaving like a spoilt child as took his penalty and on the podium) but the important thing is that Mark took the opportunity and turned it into a dominant win. And with the top five drivers separated by only 20 points (the equivalent of only 8 points under the old system) with one third of the season left, this is going to be the closest season finale in a long time. I can't wait.
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